Born on June 28, 1971, Elon Musk is an investor and businessman. In addition to being the owner, chairman, and chief technology officer of X Corp., he is also the founder, chairman, CEO, and product architect of SpaceX; he is also an angel investor, the founder, CEO, and CTO of Tesla, Inc.; he is the co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, the founder of the Boring Company, and the president of the Musk Foundation. With a projected net worth of $254 billion according to Forbes and US$232 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of December 2023, he is the richest person in the planet. This is mostly due to his ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla.
![Elon Musk](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-330-1024x741.png)
Elon Musk Fast Info
Birth date | June 28, 1971 |
Birth place | Pretoria, South Africa |
Birth Name | Elon Reeve Musk |
Father | Errol Musk, engineer |
Mother | Maye (Haldeman) Musk, nutritionist and model |
Education | Attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 1990-1992; University of Pennsylvania, B.S. in economics and B.A. in physics, 1995; briefly attended Stanford University in 1995 |
Citizenship | South Africa Canada United States |
Spouses | Justine Wilson (m. 2000; div. 2008) Talulah Riley (m. 2010; div. 2012) (m. 2013; div. 2016) |
Children | 11 |
Relatives | Kimbal Musk (brother) Tosca Musk (sister) Lyndon Rive (cousin) |
Age | 52 years |
Net Worth | $193 billion (22,550 crores USD) |
Elon Musk Early Life
Musk was born in Canada to a Canadian mother and a South African father. Musk grew up with his head stuck in books and computers. He was bullied by his classmates and often beaten up by class bullies as a little, timid youngster until he grew strong enough to defend himself during a growth spurt in his teens. He developed a video game at the age of 12 and sold it to a computer magazine. Musk left South Africa in 1988 after getting a Canadian passport because he refused to support apartheid through compulsory military duty and wanted to pursue the higher economic prospects offered in the United States.
Elon Musk Education
Musk completed his graduation from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa. For his schooling, he attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School. He was an average student at his studies.
Elon Musk Career
In the summer of 1995, Musk relocated to Silicon Valley. He enrolled at Stanford University’s PhD programme in applied physics, but dropped out after only two days. Kimball Musk, Elon’s 15-month younger brother, had recently graduated from Queen’s University with a business degree and had travelled to California to join him. As the early Internet grew in popularity, the brothers decided to develop a company called Zip2, an internet business directory with maps. That’s how Elon Musk started entering into the business world.
![Elon Musk Career](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-338.png)
Zip2 eventually recruited angel investors and grew into a profitable firm thanks to the brothers’ efforts. Zip2 was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999 by the brothers. Elon subsequently went on to create his own online financial services company, X.com. Confinity, a company formed by Peter Thiel and two others mere months after X.com and with headquarters in the same building, was its main competitor. In March 2000, the two firms joined and adopted the name of their major product, PayPal, an online money transfer service for individuals. In October 2002, Ebay, the online auction site, purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion in Ebay stock. Elon Musk, who had been the largest shareholder in PayPal with 11.7% of the company’s equity shares, found himself with $165 million in Ebay stock at the age of 31.
Since leaving PayPal, he has founded, co-founded, and/or led companies focused on addressing three distinct existential risks to humanity’s long-term survival: climate risk, single-planet dependency risk, and human species obsolescence risk. Two of these companies, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, he risked his entire early fortune to build.
PayPal and SpaceX
Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997. He enrolled in graduate school in physics at Stanford University in California, but he left after only two days because he felt that the Internet had much more potential to change society than work in physics. In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became PayPal, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make more affordable rockets. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the larger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010), which were designed to cost much less than competing rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. SpaceX has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy–Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. SpaceX also developed the Dragon spacecraft, which carries supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. The first test flights of the Super Heavy–Starship system launched in 2020. In addition to being CEO of SpaceX, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Starship. SpaceX is contracted to build the lander for the astronauts returning to the Moon by 2025 as part of NASA’s Artemis space program.
Tesla
Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In 2006 Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster, which could travel 245 miles (394 km) on a single charge. Unlike most previous electric vehicles, which Musk thought were stodgy and uninteresting, it was a sports car that could go from 0 to 60 miles (97 km) per hour in less than four seconds. In 2010 the company’s initial public offering raised about $226 million. Two years later Tesla introduced the Model S sedan, which was acclaimed by automotive critics for its performance and design. The company won further praise for its Model X luxury SUV, which went on the market in 2015. The Model 3, a less-expensive vehicle, went into production in 2017 and became the best-selling electric car of all time.
![Elon musk Tesla](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-339-1024x576.png)
Dissatisfied with the projected cost ($68 billion) of a high-speed rail system in California, Musk in 2013 proposed an alternate faster system, the Hyperloop, a pneumatic tube in which a pod carrying 28 passengers would travel the 350 miles (560 km) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes at a top speed of 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, nearly the speed of sound. Musk claimed that the Hyperloop would cost only $6 billion and that, with the pods departing every two minutes on average, the system could accommodate the six million people who travel that route every year. However, he stated, between running SpaceX and Tesla, he could not devote time to the Hyperloop’s development.
Elon Musk Success Story
Musk joined engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to help operate Tesla Motors in 2004, where he played a key role in the development of the world’s first electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster. Musk took over as CEO and product architect after Eberhard was fired from the company in 2007 due to a series of conflicts. Tesla has grown to be one of the most popular and desirable vehicle brands in the world under his leadership.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has signed many high-profile contracts with NASA and the US Air Force to manufacture rockets and execute military missions. Musk has been vocal about his desire to work with NASA on a collaborative mission to deploy an astronaut to Mars by 2025. Elon Musk has always been a proponent of various space-age technologies, but it hasn’t always been a smooth journey for him. He went on to become a small business owner and eventually the CEO of two creative firms after being bullied in school. But he made the decision to ascend from there and never settle for anything less.
![Elon Musk Success Story](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-334-1024x576.png)
Tesla, in addition to creating electric automobiles, has a strong presence in the solar energy sector, courtesy to its purchase of SolarCity. This clean-energy services company, which was founded in 2006, now develops two rechargeable solar batteries that are primarily used for stationary energy storage. The Powerwall is designed for residential backup power and off-grid use, whereas the Powerpack is designed for business or electric utility grid use.
Facts about Elon Musk
- Elon Musk was born in the year 1971 in South Africa.
- He is best known for co-founding Tesla Motors and SpaceX, but he first got his wealth as a PayPal co-founder.
- Tony Stark, the fictional character created, was heavily influenced by Musk (a.k.a. Iron Man). Indeed, elements of Iron Man 2 were shot both inside and outside of SpaceX. Even Elon Musk makes an appearance in the film!
- Musk’s official annual pay for Tesla Motors is $1, similar to that of Steve Jobs and other well-known entrepreneurs.
- Musk taught himself computer programming at the age of 12 and produced the video game Blastar, which he sold for $500.
- Elon Musk did not become an American citizen until he was 31 years old, in 2002.
- Elon Musk immigrated to Canada from South Africa when he was 17 years old. He eventually went to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States for college.
- Musk moved to California after graduation to pursue physics graduate school at Stanford University. He dropped out of Stanford after only two days, opting to take advantage of the booming Internet industry.
- Musk swiftly founded his first startup, Zip2, which supplied online newspapers with maps and business directories, after dropping out of graduate school. In 1999, he sold the company for $307 million.
- Musk co-founded X.com in 1999, an online payment startup that later became PayPal before being purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion in equity (of which Musk received $165 million).
- Tesla Motors, a firm that designs and manufactures electric sports automobiles, was co-founded by Musk. Tesla was able to flourish where other significant manufacturers failed in the electric vehicle sector. He is presently Tesla’s CEO and chief product architect.
- The National Highway Safety Administration gave the Tesla Model S a 5.4/5 safety rating, the highest ever given to a car.
- Musk is one of the driving drivers behind SolarCity, which he and his cousins created. He is also the company’s main shareholder.
- Elon Musk also created SpaceX (formerly known as Space Exploration Technologies), a corporation that designs and manufactures space launch vehicles, with a concentration on rocket technology. His goal is to lower the cost of space travel in order to expand human life beyond the Earth.
- Musk originally struggled to raise funds for SpaceX, which investors dismissed as a pipe fantasy. Musk put all of his personal funds into SpaceX in order to make it a reality (going against every piece of business advice ever written).
Elon Musk Family
Elon Musk’s family includes:
![Elon Musk Family](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-335-1024x682.png)
- Talulah Riley: Elon Musk’s first wife, an actress known for her roles in movies like “Pride & Prejudice” and “Inception.” They got married in 2010 but divorced in 2012. However, they remarried in 2013 before divorcing again in 2016.
- Justine Musk: Elon’s first wife, whom he married in 2000 and divorced in 2008. They have five children together.
- Kimbal Musk: Elon’s brother, born on September 20, 1972. Kimbal is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who co-founded The Kitchen Restaurant Group and also serves on the board of directors for Tesla.
- Tosca Musk: Elon’s sister, a filmmaker and producer known for her work in romantic films and television movies.
Elon Musk Wife and Children
Elon Musk was married to Canadian singer and songwriter Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher. However, please note that information might have changed since then, so it’s essential to verify the current status.
As for Elon Musk’s children, here is a list of the ones he had:
- Nevada Alexander Musk (Son)
- Griffin Musk (Son)
- Xavier Musk (Son)
- Damian Musk (Son)
![Elon Musk Wife and Children](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-332-1024x682.png)
Key points about Elon Musk’s Tesla:
- Electric Vehicles: Tesla is best known for its electric cars, including popular models like the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y. These vehicles have gained widespread recognition for their performance, long-range capabilities, and innovative features. Tesla’s focus on electric vehicles has been instrumental in driving the transition to sustainable transportation.
- Gigafactories: Tesla operates several “Gigafactories” around the world to produce batteries, battery packs, and other components for its vehicles. These Gigafactories play a crucial role in scaling up production and reducing costs, which has been a significant factor in making electric vehicles more accessible to the general public.
- Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD): Tesla has been at the forefront of autonomous driving technology. Its vehicles are equipped with advanced driver-assistance features like Autopilot, which provides semi-autonomous capabilities. Tesla has been actively working on Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, aiming to achieve fully autonomous driving in the future.
- Energy Products: In addition to electric vehicles, Tesla is involved in clean energy solutions. The company offers solar panels, solar roofs, and energy storage products like the Powerwall and Powerpack to enable sustainable energy usage and storage for homes and businesses.
- Market Impact: Tesla’s success has had a significant impact on the automotive industry, encouraging other manufacturers to invest more heavily in electric vehicles and clean energy technologies.
Elon Musk Net Worth
According to the reports of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk net worth is around $193 billion after he lost $41 billion since Tesla’s October 18 earnings call. This makes him the world’s richest person after he grabbed this position after beating the CEO of Louis Vuitton Bernard Arnault.
Elon Musk Net Worth in 2023
As per the reports of Forbes in the year 2023, He has a net worth of around $193 billion in this financial year, Elon Musk net worth is rupees 18,000 crores approx making him one of the richest people in the world. Musk’s wealth primarily stems from his ownership stakes in his companies, especially Tesla and SpaceX.
The stock prices of these companies have experienced huge hikes and substantial growth which led to a surge in Musk’s net worth. Also in addition to the compensation packages, Musk is often tied to performance metrics, which have further been further incentives for his dedication towards the success of his ventures.
Elon Musk Pioneering Space Exploration: SpaceX
SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is yet another groundbreaking venture founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Musk’s ambition for SpaceX was to reduce the cost of space travel and ultimately enable the colonization of Mars. The company developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy rockets, all of which successfully launched various payloads into space.
One of SpaceX’s crowning achievements came with the Dragon spacecraft, which became the first commercially-built spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. Additionally, SpaceX’s partnership with NASA opened the doors for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
![Elon Musk Pioneering Space Exploration: SpaceX](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-333.png)
Elon Musk’s Salary and Earning Assets
- Salary: Elon Musk draws a nominal salary of $1 per year. However, his compensation comes from various other sources.
- Net Worth: Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated to be over $193 billion, making him one of the richest individuals in the world.
- Monthly Earnings: Musk’s compensation is not solely based on his salary. He reportedly earns approximately $200 million a month through various means.
- Tesla Stake: Elon Musk’s 13.4% stake in Tesla represents a significant portion of his personal wealth. Tesla is one of the most valuable and innovative electric car companies globally.
- SpaceX Ownership: Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, and he currently owns around 25% of the company through stock and options. SpaceX is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company.
- X (formerly Twitter) Ownership: Musk also owns a stake in the microblogging website X. He holds approximately 73% of the company in his passive investment portfolio.
- Ranking: Elon Musk is currently the richest person in the world, with a net worth that surpasses other wealthy individuals.
- Comparison: Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, is ranked second in terms of world’s richest person, but Musk currently holds the top position as the world’s richest man.
Elon Musk’s Properties
Elon Musk has invested in various real estate properties in California, with his house portfolio including both historical and modern mansions, contributing significantly to his real estate holdings:
- Gene Wilder’s former home: A $30 million mansion in Los Angeles.
- Historic 100-year-old mansion on the San Francisco Peninsula.
- A mansion in Bel-Air, Los Angeles: Originally rented by Musk in 2010 and later purchased for $17 million. It spans 20,248 square feet and features seven bedrooms and thirteen bathrooms.
- Boomerang-shaped house in Brentwood, California: Purchased for just under $3.7 million in 2014.
- A 0.28-acre modern house in Brentwood, which was sold in August 2019 for $3.9 million.
- Bel-Air mansion purchased while under construction for $24.25 million in 2016.
- Four remaining properties in Bel Air with a combined asking price of $62.5 million, according to a Zillow listing.
Elon Musk’s Cars
The billionaire has quite a good collection of cars, including:
- 1978 BMW 320i: $1,400
- 1967 Jaguar E-Type: $40,000
- 1997 McLaren F1: $815,000
- 2006 Hamann BMW M5: $103,500
- 2008 Tesla Roadster: $98,950
- 2010 Audi Q7: $48,000
- 1976 Lotus Esprit “Wet Nellie”: $920,000
- 2012 Porsche 911 Turbo: $154,710
- 1920 Ford Model T: $850
- Tesla Model X: $94,990
- Tesla Model 3 Performance: $58,990
- 2019 Tesla Model S Performance: $20,000
- Tesla Cybertruck: $69,900
Quotes by Elon Musk:
- “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
- “I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.”
- “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
- “You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it.”
- “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”
- “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”
- “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.”
- “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
- “The path to the CEO’s office should not be through the CFO’s office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.”
- “The reality is gas prices should be much more expensive than they are because we’re not incorporating the true damage to the environment and the hidden costs of mining oil and transporting it to the U.S. Whenever you have an unpriced externality, you have a bit of a market failure because what that means is it doesn’t fully reflect the true cost of production and true cost of consumption.”
Elon Musk Company Name
Elon Musk is the CEO and co-founder of several companies:
- Tesla: He oversees electric vehicle, battery, and solar energy product development and manufacturing.
- SpaceX: Musk leads this company focused on space exploration and rocket launches.
- Neuralink: He co-founded this neurotechnology firm working on brain-computer interfaces.
- The Boring Company: Musk is involved in tunneling and infrastructure projects for transportation solutions.
Elon Musk Timeline
1995 – Musk co-founds Zip2 Corp., a company that develops online city guides.
1999 – Sells Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million.
March 1999 – Co-founds X.com, an online banking and financial services company.
March 2000 – X.com merges with Confinity and is renamed PayPal in 2001.
June 2002 – Musk founds SpaceX, with the intention of decreasing the cost and increasing the accessibility of space travel.
October 2002 – PayPal is acquired by eBay in a $1.5 billion deal. Musk pockets $165 million.
February 2004 – Musk joins Tesla as chairman of the board and oversees the initial round of investment funding.
October 2008 – Becomes CEO and product architect of Tesla.
December 8, 2010 – The Dragon, an unmanned craft developed by SpaceX, splashes down in the Pacific Ocean. The Dragon is the first commercial spacecraft by a privately owned company to orbit the Earth and return.
May 25, 2012 – The Dragon makes history as the first private capsule to connect to the International Space Station (ISS).
May 31, 2012 – After delivering more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments to the ISS, the Dragon splashes down about 560 miles off Baja, California. Musk declares the flight a “grand slam.” It is the first commercial mission completed by a privately-owned spacecraft.
December 11, 2015 – Announces plans to help fund a non-profit artificial intelligence research center called OpenAI.
April 8, 2016 – For the first time, SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship.
March 30, 2017 – SpaceX launches a used rocket. This is the first time in the history of spaceflight that the same rocket has been used on two separate missions to orbit.
June 1, 2017 – Quits two of President Donald Trump’s business advisory councils after the president announces he will pull the United States out of the historic Paris climate agreement. Musk tweets, “Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
February 6, 2018 – SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket. The rocket carries a red Tesla roadster into space, replete with a fake astronaut in the driver’s seat.
August 7, 2018 – Musk announces, via Twitter, that he is considering taking Tesla private. He claims that funding has been secured.
August 10, 2018 – Two shareholders file lawsuits accusing Tesla and Musk of violating federal securities law by allegedly making false statements to boost the company’s stock price. Musk’s tweet about securing funding to take Tesla private on August 7 boosted Tesla’s stock price immediately. But in the days following, it lost most of those gains, reacting, at least in part, to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal that the federal Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Musk’s claim.
August 24, 2018 – In a statement posted on the Tesla website, Musk says he intends to keep the company public after consulting with the board of directors.
September 17, 2018 – Vernon Unsworth, the caver who helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in July, files a defamation lawsuit against Musk in a federal court in California. Musk grew angry with Unsworth after the caver criticized Musk’s attempts to help with the Thai cave rescue effort by building a miniature submarine. On Twitter, Musk made the unfounded claim that Unsworth was a “pedo” or pedophile. Musk doubled down on his claim in other tweets before deleting them. On December 6, 2019, a jury decides that Musk did not defame Unsworth.
September 18, 2018 – Tesla confirms that the Justice Department is investigating whether comments made by Musk in August about taking the company private were illegal.
September 27, 2018 – The Securities and Exchange Commission sues Musk for making “false and misleading” statements to Tesla investors via Twitter on August 7. The SEC asks that Musk be prevented from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.
September 29, 2018 – Musk agrees to a settlement over fraud charges with the SEC. Under the terms of the settlement, Musk will step down as chairman of Tesla and pay a $20 million fine. Tesla also agrees to pay a $20 million fine, appoint two new independent directors and establish a committee to oversee Musk’s communications.
December 18, 2018 – Demonstrates his Boring Company’s first tunnel, built as an experiment in underground transportation with the aim of providing alternative routes to traffic-jammed streets.
February 25, 2019 – After Musk tweets about the number of cars he anticipates Tesla will produce in 2019, the SEC asks a federal judge to hold him in contempt of court for violating the terms of the settlement. The agreement bars Musk from posting company info on social media without pre-approval.
March 7, 2019 – Bloomberg reports that Musk’s Department of Defense security clearance is under review. He resubmitted his application after he smoked marijuana during a live podcast interview in September 2018.
April 26, 2019 – Musk reaches a settlement with the SEC to resolve the case involving the 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 a share. According to the agreement, Musk cannot tweet about some topics without obtaining pre-approval from an experienced securities attorney.
September 28, 2019 – Musk reveals a prototype of Starship, the rocket and spacecraft at the center of his plan to colonize Mars. During an hour-long presentation about the next steps, he says the first passengers could board Starship and travel to orbit within a year.
March 23, 2020 – California Governor Gavin Newsom announces that Musk had acquired 1,000 ventilators and would be distributing them to help California hospitals treating patients infected with the coronavirus. Weeks later, Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services tells CNN that the governor’s office had been speaking to hospitals in the state every day and to date had “not heard of any hospital system that has received a ventilator directly from Tesla or Musk.” In a series of tweets, Musk asked Newsom to “please fix this understanding” and included a partial list of hospitals he said had been sent ventilators.
April 29, 2020 – After tweeting about coronavirus for months, Musk calls stay-at-home orders meant to slow the coronavirus pandemic “fascist” and likens them to “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes.”
May 4, 2020 – Musk announces the birth of his son, X Æ A-12 Musk, with singer Grimes.
May 9, 2020 – Tesla files suit against Alameda County, California after local officials there refused to let the company reopen its Fremont factory. Via social media, Musk threatens to move the Tesla’s headquarters out of California, to a state where shelter-in-place rules are less restrictive.
May 24, 2020 – Grimes announces she and Musk have changed their son’s name to X Æ A-Xii in an Instagram post.
May 30, 2020 – SpaceX and NASA launches Falcon 9, the first launch from US soil since 2011.
August 28, 2020 – Musk reveals a protype of an implantable chip for the brain in a pig test subject. The implant from his company, Neuralink, would connect wirelessly to a small, behind-the-ear receiver that could communicate with a computer.
January 11, 2021 – In a YouTube video, it is announced that Musk has donated $5 million to the online learning organization Khan Academy.
May 8, 2021 – Musk hosts “Saturday Night Live.”
December 13, 2021 – Time magazine names Musk as Person of the Year.
March 10, 2022 – In an interview with Vanity Fair, Grimes reveals she and Musk welcomed their second child together, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk.
April 4, 2022 – Twitter says in a filing that Musk has bought 9.2% of its shares. The following day, Twitter says in a regulatory filing that it plans to appoint Musk to its board for a term that ends in 2024. As part of the deal, Musk agrees not to acquire more than 14.9% of the company’s shares while he remains on the board. On April 10, it is announced that Musk has decided not to join the board.
April 13, 2022 – An SEC filing shows that Musk has made an offer to purchase Twitter.
April 25, 2022 – Twitter agrees to sell itself to Musk in a deal valued at around $44 billion. Less than a month later, Musk announces via Twitter that the deal is temporarily on hold. In his tweet, Musk links to a Reuters report about Twitter’s most recent quarterly disclosure regarding its spam and fake account problem.
July 8, 2022 – In an SEC filing, Musk moves to terminate his deal to buy Twitter because he believes the company is “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the original agreement.
July 12, 2022 – Twitter files a lawsuit against Musk in an effort to force him to follow through with his deal to buy the company.
October 27, 2022 – Musk officially completes his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The deal’s closing averts a looming legal battle if the acquisition did not close by 5 p.m. ET Friday, October 28.
November 16, 2022 – Musk testifies in his own defense in a Tesla shareholder lawsuit examining the massive compensation package that helped make him the world’s richest person. The lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Richard J. Tornetta in Delaware’s Chancery Court, alleges that Musk’s huge 2018 pay package was unjust enrichment, and alleges the board failed to meet its legal duty to act in the best interest of Tesla shareholders. Tesla said at the time it could be worth nearly $56 billion, and the net value today is $50.9 billion.
April 2023 – Twitter adds “Government-funded Media” labels to the Twitter accounts for BBC, PBS, and Voice of America. Twitter initially adds a “state-affiliated” label for NPR but switches it to “Government-funded” following an email exchange between Musk and NPR.
July 12, 2023 – Announces the formation of a new company focused on artificial intelligence, xAI.
July 23, 2023 – Rebrands Twiiter as X.
Elon Musk Foundation
Musk is the president of the Musk Foundation, which he established in 2001. Its stated goals are to: support research, development, and advocacy (for causes like human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy, and “safe artificial intelligence”); provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas; and support science and engineering educational initiatives.
The foundation has received 350 donations as of 2020. Approximately 50% of them went to NGOs that support science education or research. The Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal’s NGO Big Green are among the notable beneficiaries. Nearly half of the $25 million that the foundation directly donated to nonprofits between 2002 and 2018 went to Musk’s OpenAI, which was a nonprofit at the time.
Hyperloop
Musk revealed plans in August 2013 for a vacuum tube train, or vactrain, and tasked twelve engineers from SpaceX and Tesla with laying the theoretical groundwork and producing preliminary drawings. Musk introduced the idea later that year and called it the “hyperloop.” A whitepaper containing the system’s alpha concept was uploaded to the blogs of SpaceX and Tesla. The document described the technology and a hypothetical route that could be used to build a transit system between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area for an estimated $6 billion. If the plan can be implemented technologically at the estimated prices, Hyperloop travel would be more affordable than using any other kind of transportation over such vast distances.
![Elon Musk Foundation](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-342.png)
Musk said in 2015 that a design competition would be held from 2015 to 2017 for people to build Hyperloop pods and operate them on a mile-long track sponsored by SpaceX. In January 2017, the track was put to service, and Musk declared that the business had begun construction on a tunnel that would eventually go to Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Musk announced in July 2017 that he had gotten “verbal government approval” to construct a hyperloop that would travel from New York City to Washington, D.C., stopping in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The intended DC-to-Baltimore leg was taken out of the website of the Boring Company in 2021. The Hawthorne tunnel project was abandoned in 2022, and it is said that the space was used to create parking for SpaceX employees.
OpenAI and xAI
Musk is a co-founder of OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research organization that was created in December 2015 with the goal of creating artificial general intelligence that is safe and helpful to humans. The company’s primary goal is to democratize artificial superintelligence systems in opposition to businesses and governments. Musk promised to sponsor OpenAI with $1 billion. Musk revealed via Twitter in 2023 that he had ultimately donated $100 million to OpenAI. Later, TechCrunch revealed that “only $15 million” of OpenAI’s investment could be positively linked to Musk based on its own analysis of public records. After that, Musk said he had given roughly $50 million.
![Elon Musk Foundation](https://thebestbiography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-343.png)
In 2018, Musk resigned from the OpenAI board in order to prevent any conflicts with his position as CEO of Tesla, which was becoming more and more involved in artificial intelligence with Tesla Autopilot. Subsequently, OpenAI has achieved notable progress in machine learning, yielding neural networks like GPT-3, which can produce text resembling that of a person, and DALL-E, which can generate digital images based on descriptions in natural language.
Elon Musk established xAI, an artificial intelligence startup, on July 12, 2023. The company’s goal is to create a generative AI application that can rival ChatGPT and other current products. According to reports, the business has employed developers from OpenAI and Google. Ten thousand graphics processing units were purchased by the Nevada-incorporated corporation. According to reports, Musk was receiving funds from SpaceX and Tesla investors.
Elon Musk’s drug use concerns Tesla, SpaceX leaders
Elon Musk’s drug use has worried executives and board members at businesses he runs, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the billionaire and the companies. Musk has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties, the Journal said, citing unnamed witnesses and others with knowledge of the matter.
People close to the Tesla. and SpaceX chief executive officer told the newspaper his drug use is ongoing, and that in particular he’s consuming ketamine. Musk said in August he has a prescription to use the drug as an antidepressant. After Musk puffed on a blunt containing marijuana on Joe Rogan’s podcast in September 2018, the Pentagon reviewed the federal security clearance tied to his role as CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, which is certified to launch military spy satellites, Bloomber .
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“After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing,” Musk, 52, posted Sunday on X, the social media company he owns. “Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol.”
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